The Creeper

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Play Opened 9 February 2006, Closed 18 March 2006

Playhouse Theatre Northumberland Avenue, London

Pauline Macaulay's The Creeper is a psychological thriller about a young opportunist who inveigles his way into the home of a prosperous if eccentric member of the landed gentry with fascinating results. Dark secrets emerge as the younger man, skilfully concealing his shady past, begins to exert his power and challenge the status quo.

The Creeper stars Ian Richardson along with Oliver Dimsdale, Alan Cox, Robert Styles and Harry Towb and is directed by Bill Bryden.

At first, you wonder why Ian Richardson chose The Creeper for his West End return, a 1960s country-house piece about a filthy-rich, sexless eccentric who employs weird young men as his live-in companions. But Pauline Macaulay's 1965 play darkens and sharpens as it goes on... Imagine Agatha Christie collaborating with Joe Orton, Jean Genet and Robin Maugham (The Servant) and you will have an idea of its plush-decadent-sadistic- melancholy tone, part hothouse masquerade, part murder story." The Sunday Times

"[A} lame psychological thriller... The saving grace is Ian Richardson, a pleasure to watch whether he's showing off his lilac socks, taking tea or preparing to meet his maker, all of which he does while exuding a cologne of effete civilisation through every upper-class pore." The Sunday Telegraph

"No one could accuse Pauline Macaulay of being crafty at plotting. Murder-mysteries don't come much creakier than The Creeper. It's like some dusty revenant from regional rep, and the climactic slaughter is fantastically silly, with the killer prowling round in a Red Indian fancy-dress outfit. The acting, by contrast, is pretty impeccable." The Independent on Sunday